Researchers put selves under the microscope

When Eric Alm got food poisoning from eating the French toast special at a restaurant three years ago, he was ecstatic. Congratulatory notes from colleagues began to show up in his inbox.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist was midway through a yearlong study of the communities of microbes that live in his gut, and the food poisoning offered an unexpected chance to analyze some fascinating, if unpleasant, output.